Development Associate

The Development Associate provides administrative, operational, and donor stewardship support to the Development Department while helping strengthen relationships with donors, supporters, volunteers, and community partners. This position plays an important customer-facing role in supporting fundraising efforts, providing excellent donor care, ensuring timely donor acknowledgments, maintaining accurate donor records, coordinating stewardship activities, and assisting with development projects and events.

This role serves as a key administrative resource for the Development team, providing exceptional customer service while supporting donor communications, gift processing, data integrity, reporting, and fundraising initiatives. The Development Associate works collaboratively across departments to ensure a positive donor experience and contributes to the organization's philanthropic goals.

The position requires exceptional organization, attention to detail, professionalism, and the ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced nonprofit environment. While many responsibilities are administrative in nature, the role also supports special projects, process improvements, stewardship initiatives, and departmental operations that advance fundraising success.

This role is ideal for someone who enjoys building relationships, supporting mission-driven work, providing exceptional customer service, and contributing to the success of a collaborative fundraising team.

Our Core Values:
1- Hell, Yeah!
2- Be Kind
3- Do What You Say
4- Forward Focused
5- Loose & Wiggly
6- Drop the Mic

You’ll thrive in this role if you….

· Enjoy communicating with people – especially over the phone

· Stay organized, pay close attention to detail, and take pride in keeping records accurate.

· Don't mind repetitive administrative tasks and understand that consistency and accuracy are important.

· Enjoy working as part of a collaborative team and are willing to jump in where needed.

· Care about making a difference and want your work to support a mission-driven organization.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

Administrative Support & Project Coordination

· Provide administrative support for Development leadership and fundraising initiatives

· Assist with planning and execution of fundraising campaigns, stewardship projects, and departmental initiatives

· Coordinate mailing projects, donor communications, and printed materials

· Assist with preparation of newsletters, donor mailings, and fundraising collateral

· Maintain organized records, calendars, files, and project documentation

· Support department meetings, scheduling, and administrative workflows

Donor Stewardship & Donor Relations

· Prepare and distribute daily donor acknowledgment letters and related correspondence

· Coordinate tribute, honor, and memorial giving activities

· Respond professionally and promptly to donor inquiries received by phone, email, and other communication channels

· Process donations received by phone

· Identify opportunities to strengthen donor recognition and engagement

· Support donor stewardship events and recognition activities

· Assist with fulfillment of donor communications and stewardship materials

Gift Processing & Database Support

· Assist with accurate donor and gift records within Salesforce and other fundraising systems

· Record donor interactions, communications, and stewardship activities

· Maintain accurate electronic and physical donor files

· Ensure donor information remains accurate, complete, and confidential

Project Management

· Manage assigned projects and administrative initiatives from planning through completion while keeping department leadership informed of progress, priorities, and significant issues.

· Assist with developing, updating, and maintaining department procedures, templates, and documentation

· Support implementation of new systems, processes, and operational improvements

· Exercise sound judgment while prioritizing competing assignments and meeting deadlines

Cross-Functional Collaboration

· Work collaboratively with Development, Finance, Communications, Volunteer Services, and other departments

· Provide exceptional customer service to internal and external stakeholders

· Support fundraising events and organizational initiatives as assigned

· Promote professionalism, confidentiality, and positive relationships with donors, volunteers, and teammates

· Perform additional duties as assigned to support departmental and organizational priorities

Required Qualifications

· High school diploma or equivalent

· Minimum one year of administrative, customer service, nonprofit, fundraising, or related experience

· Strong written and verbal communication skills

· Exceptional attention to detail and organizational skills

· Excellent customer service and interpersonal skills

· Ability to manage multiple priorities while meeting deadlines

· Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications

· Ability to learn Salesforce or similar CRM/database systems

· Ability to work independently while contributing effectively as a member of a collaborative team

· Demonstrated professionalism, discretion, and commitment to confidentiality

· Passion for the mission of the SPCA of Wake County

Preferred Qualifications

· Associate's or Bachelor's degree

· Experience working in nonprofit development or fundraising

· Experience using Salesforce or donor database systems

· Experience supporting donor stewardship, gift processing, or fundraising operations

· Experience coordinating projects or administrative initiatives

· Experience with mail merge, reporting, and donor communications

Work Environment

This role operates primarily within a collaborative nonprofit office environment and involves frequent interaction with donors, volunteers, staff, vendors, and community partners. Responsibilities include office-based administrative work, donor communication, event preparation, and occasional support at fundraising and community events. This role also requires working around and interacting with animals, including cats, dogs, and small pets.

The position requires maintaining professionalism, confidentiality, and responsiveness while managing multiple priorities and supporting time-sensitive fundraising activities. Regular onsite presence is required to facilitate collaboration, donor support, administrative operations, and departmental projects.

Physical Requirements

· Ability to consistently perform onsite responsibilities at the SPCA of Wake County Resource Center and other organizational locations as needed

· Ability to remain stationary and work at a computer for extended periods of time

· Ability to communicate effectively in person, by phone, and through electronic communication methods

· Ability to occasionally move materials weighing up to 15 pounds

· Ability to participate in in-person meetings, donor interactions, stewardship activities, trainings, and organizational events

· Ability to handle, organize, prepare, transport, and distribute physical donor materials, files, mailings, deposits, cash receipts, and fundraising documents in accordance with internal financial controls, including policies requiring physical presence and coordination with another designated teammate to maintain separation of duties

· Ability to support operational and administrative tasks requiring physical presence, including compliance documentation, donor correspondence, event preparation, and cross-functional team support

· Ability to occasionally travel locally for donor meetings, events, banking, notarization, or other development-related activities

Benefits:

• Medical and Dental: Employer pays 90% of employee coverage (full-time)


• Insurance includes wellness, dental, vision, life, mental health care, prescriptions, emergency & urgent care, chiropractic care, and physical therapy


• Telemedicine options, 24/7 access to virtual health & wellness care and virtual behavioral health care

PAID TIME OFF –

• All part-time and full-time staff receive paid time off.


• Paid Holidays - 9 paid holidays per year (full-time)


• Vacation Time - 10 paid vacation days per year (full-time) with scheduled increases at milestone anniversaries of hire date


• Sick Time - 6.5 paid sick days per year (full-time)

FINANCIAL –

• Healthcare: Flexible Spending Account


• 401k Plan


• Coastal Federal Credit Union Membership


• 20% discount on pet adoptions and in SPCA Wake retail store

OTHER –

• Bereavement time off 


• Federal & State Leave of Absence options

Disclaimer

This job description is intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed. It is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties, responsibilities, or qualifications. Responsibilities may change based on organizational needs.

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of this position, consistent with applicable federal, state, and local laws.

Only the most qualified candidates will be contacted for interviews. No phone calls or emails, please — we’ll have our people call your people.